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Post by imsanut on May 7, 2013 11:56:25 GMT -8
You're correct about the flares, they came with the Tiger kit. The Alpine was what the Tiger was based on before the Ford 260 got stuffed under the bonnet. F/P sounds correct. I have been wanting to return to this build.....
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Post by Deleted on May 12, 2013 21:53:02 GMT -8
By chance I picked up a half-built Corvair in a Howmet Turbine spyder kit at the SoCal NNL. It had been painted with race interior and the turbine motor mostly installed. I hadn't really followed Covairs, but I wondered if it would fit in this SCCA category. Then I wondered about the "science" of making that engine swap back in the day... and I quote from Wikipedia on the Howmet Turbine: "Interest in the use of gas turbines as an alternative to the piston engine had been gaining support in the automobile industry during the 1960s. Chrysler had begun testing in the 1950s and began leasing their Turbine Car to the public in 1963, while British manufacturer Rover and racing team BRM combined to build a racing car for the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1963 and 1965. Both cars showed reliability but were unable to win over the public or to win at Le Mans respectively. By 1967, team owner and car developer Andy Granatelli had created the STP-Paxton Turbocar for the Indianapolis 500..."So then I looked up racing Corvairs and found this little story about a Sebring race car that happens to be painted almost the same color as the kit project... corvaircenter.com/phorum/read.php?1,495203,495488 There is even a Hot Wheel of the #8 car in their Boulevard series.
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Post by Patrick on May 13, 2013 7:42:04 GMT -8
An interesting A/SR entry I would imagine. And seemingly well done model too.
Patrick
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Post by dustymojave on May 14, 2013 22:25:40 GMT -8
Neat Corvair. I've always liked the later Corvairs for some reason. The turbine is an interesting adaptation. Not one I would think of, but it could work. I feel the turbine is better used for a situation like Indy, where the engine work is relatively steady with little ups and downs. In SCCA racing, like Patrick noted, it would have to race in A/SR against McLarens and Lolas.
Kinda like the guy who showed up at Riverside in 1968 with a Shelby GT500 convertible. Shelby and Ford had not applied for homologation of the convertible for racing with FIA or SCCA, so it was not allowed in the Production Category. He had to race it in A/SR. He had trouble getting through the Driving School, partly due to him and partly due to the engine built by a drag engine guy. He hadn't looked at a rule book before he dove in with both feet and wallet.
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Post by Deleted on May 15, 2013 23:03:19 GMT -8
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Post by dustymojave on May 21, 2013 12:13:25 GMT -8
I suppose they probably had to upgrade the engine to a Turbo due to Chevy having homologated only the Turbo version of the car with FIA by that time. I also presume that a normally aspirated version was homologated later allowing Don Yenko and his customers to race his Stinger represented by the kit. I remember Yenko showing up at Riverside for an ARRC in the late 60s. ARRC = "American Road Race of Champions" - the forerunner of the modern "Valvoline Runoffs" SCCA National Championship race event. It was sponsored then by Champion Spark Plugs. IIRC, he ran mid-pack.
As an odd side note...In typing this post, the spellcheck feature 2x "corrected" the spelling of "Yenko" as "Yanko" ... is there really a word "Yanko"? :~)
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